Why We're All Above Average

Below:

Next story in Science

On a scale of one to 10, you probably think you're a seven. And
you wouldn't be alone.

While it's impossible for most people to be above the median for
a specific quality, people think they are better than most people
in many arenas, from charitable behavior to work performance.

The phenomenon, known as illusory
superiority, is so stubbornly persistent that psychologists
would be surprised if it didn't show up in their studies, said
David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell who has studied the
effect for decades.

It happens for many reasons: Others are too polite to say what
they really think, incompetent people lack the skills to assess
their abilities accurately, and such self-delusions can actually
protect people's
mental health, Dunning told LiveScience.

Widespread phenomenon

Since psychological studies first began, people have given
themselves top marks for most positive traits. While most people
do well at assessing others, they are wildly positive about their
own abilities, Dunning said.

That's because we realize the external traits and circumstances
that guide other people's actions, "but when it comes to us, we
think it's all about our intention, our effort, our desire, our
agency — we think we sort of float above all these kinds of
constraints," he said. [ 10 Things You Didn't
Know About You ]

In studies, most people overestimate their IQ. For instance, in a
classic 1977 study, 94 percent of professors rated themselves
above
average relative to their peers. In another study, 32 percent
of the employees of a software company said they performed better
than 19 out of 20 of their colleagues. And Dunning has found that
people overestimate how charitable they'll be in future donation
drives, but accurately guess their peers' donations.

Drivers consistently rate themselves as better than average —
even when a test of their hazard perception reveals them to be
below par, said Mark Horswill, a psychologist at the University
of Queensland in Australia.

"You find it across all ages, you find it among novice drivers,
and you find it among drivers over age 65," Horswill told
LiveScience.

Because even the worst driver may by chance avoid an accident,
people are more likely to overestimate skills like that than
concrete skills like chess or tennis, where the incompetent
are trounced quickly, Horswill said.

Room for delusion

In part, most positive traits — like being a good driver — are so
vaguely defined that there's plenty of wiggle room to make them
fit, Dunning said. People also don't usually get honest
feedback from others.

But in a strange twist, the most incompetent are also the most
likely to overestimate their skills, while the ace performers are
more likely to underrate themselves, because if they find a skill
easy they assume other people do too, he said.

Self-protection?

One group seems to be immune to such self-aggrandizement: People
who are depressed or have anxiety don't overrate themselves,
Horswill said. The more severe the depression,
the more likely they are to underrate themselves. That suggests
the illusion of superiority may actually be a protective
mechanism that shields our self-esteem, he added.

"North Americans seem to be the kings and queens
of overestimation. If you go to places like Japan, Korea or
China, this whole phenomenon evaporates," Dunning said.

That is possibly because Eastern cultures value self-improvement,
while Western culture tends to
value self-esteem, he said.

Finding the truth

While it's not possible to get a completely clear-eyed view of
oneself, people can bring their
self-perception more in line with reality, Dunning said.

For one, people should look to others whose lives inspire
admiration, figure out what they're doing right, and try to
emulate them, he said.

And since people are generally pretty accurate in assessing other
people (just not themselves), people should be aggressive about
getting — and taking to heart — constructive criticism from
others, he said.